There are two ways to do this. The first is to go about your day with one of your senses blocked and the other is to expose yourself to new experiences for each of your senses. Both of these technique will develop your brain performance.

Block out one of the senses

The easiest ways to try this one is to use a blindfold. By impeding one of our sense to be of any use to us we force the other four to make up for the missing information about our surroundings. A blindfold while we eat can make not only putting the food on our fork or spoon a tricky endeavour but also tasting the food without having our visual input distracting us will be a much deeper experience.

Another alternative is to use earplugs. Going throughout your day at home with ear plugs is at the very least an interesting experience as you will become much more aware of what your eyes perceive and your body feels such as the phone vibrating on the table, watching a football game on the TV or the vibration from the speakers from the music. One of the most interesting instances I saw of this was when a hearing-impaired friend of mine came out to a night club one night and was dancing to the beat perfectly. It was all in the vibrations of the bass.

Over time, this compensation of the remaining senses making an extra effort will give them the training to learn new things in the future such as new tastes, smells, etc.

Feel, see, hear, taste and smell new things

Each of our senses has been limited to the range of experiences that you have exposed them to up until now. This range is very narrow compared to what is available out there. By going outside of this range you will be setting off new receptors in the nerve endings and creating new connections in the brain.

To expand our experiences in taste, shop for different and more exotic foods. Try out different juices, wines, fruits, vegetables, meats, etc. Our visual senses can be refined by viewing different genres of art, visual effects or any other type of imagery. It is important to take the time to compare the different examples of each category so that you can get a feeling of the subtleties which will enhance your visual perception. This in turn will hone your attention to detail. Another thing you can do is to try out different perfumes in the store and compare the smells. Try to use adjectives to describe all these experiences and sensations as it will greatly impact your sensibility.

So, in essence, go for a wide a range of sensations as possible and describe and compare the different experiences. As you get better you can also combine sensory experiences such as smell and taste in the case of food.

Not any music will do. The idea is that you listen to music that relaxes you. Each type of music has a different purpose which puts you into a certain mind state. If you are going to do an extreme sport some more hard music might put you into a more appropriate mindset than classic music.

To go to sleep however you will be better off with some relaxing music which brings your body and mind into a calm state so that you don’t get distracted by hundreds of thoughts that stop you from getting a full night’s sleep.

Stress is the body’s response to a life or death situation. Only extended over long periods of time. When we are in a dangerous situation the body releases a boost of adrenaline to make us more aware of our surrounding to make the correct choice of fight or flight.

This is a perfect reaction to one-off events. However, if this situation continues over longer periods of time, the brain is subjected to adrenaline too long and starts to suffer. It can no longer perform at its best.

Modern life replicates the sense of danger with mental threats to livelihood such as anxiety about having a job, the reaction of a job, regret about customer service, time pressure and the vast array of other elements cause these repeated hits of adrenaline.

Try to reduce your stress as much as possible to allow your brain to concentrate on its own growth and so it can focus on the important things in your day-to-day. Try out techniques such as meditation or music therapy, goal setting and distractions through hobbies or travel to get your brain to recuperate.

In the same way that we have trouble running a marathon if we played a football match the day before without proper rest in between, the brain cannot perform well if it is not given the sleep it needs. Having a healthy lifestyle for a healthy mind includes getting enough sleep. If we don’t give it the required rest, it will never be able to achieve its full potential.

People may think that they can avoid having to sleep fully by getting a shot of caffeine or something of the sort but they are fooling themselves. While coffee has its beneficial aspects to brain performance, replacing the need of sleep is not one of them. An adult tends to require around 7 to 8 hours of sleep per night. Skipping this routine once in a while (to finnish a project in time, etc.) works for a couple of days but already after the first night with lack of sleep, our brain no longer has the capacity to perform at its best. We are no longer as creative, our attention span is greatly reduced, memory goes out the window and our overall learning capacity is greatly reduced.

The worst thing you can do when studying for exams is to sacrifice sleep for hours memorizing or practicing solving problems. The amount we retain is so greatly reduced that the trade-off is not worth it.

Get this aspect of your life sorted out. Most people are more productive going to bed and getting up early. You might say that you are not productive at all in the mornings. That is simply not true. You might be bad at waking up and getting into gear, but there are sufficient ways to kickstart your day and get you awake in a matter of minutes. One way to do this is to set up a morning routine and then work on going to bed and getting up 30 minutes earlier each week. Not necessarily every day, although you can also do that, but going in slow increments will help you stick to it. You can also do a 30 to 60 day challenge to acquire that new habit.

The Romans believed that a healthy mind requires a healthy body. This has repeatedly proven to be true. The brain puts out what you put in which means that if you want the most important machine of your body to work at its best it needs clean fuel to work properly.

Eat Brain Foods

The best way to do this is by having a healthy diet. The biggest factor that impacts the health of our body and thereby the performance of our brain is to have a balanced diet. Avoid processed foods, exceedingly fatty foods, and artificial sugars. Aim to have wholesome home cooked meals. That way you know what it is you are eating (it is also cheaper). This control over the food you are eating is more difficult when we are eating out as we cannot be sure of the ingredients used and how they are prepared.

When preparing your brain food, make sure you have a wide variety of foods. A big proportion should be fruit and vegetables, followed by raw nuts (not roasted), oily fish such as salmon and limited red meat. The healthy desert options include fruit and yogurt with natural sweeteners such as honey.

Exercise the Body and the Brain

No one is expected to have to run a triathlon or become the next Mr. Universe to boost their brain power. However, some basic and regular physical exercise is absolutely necessary to eliminate toxins from our body and release the chemicals in the brain required for a better brain performance but it also increases the blood flow which transports the oxygen to the entire body, not the least of which is the brain. This provides the optimal prerequisites for our mental exercises to have the greatest effect in stimulating growth in neural connections.

No smoking, drinking or drugs

Exercise may get rid of toxins in the body but that is no reason to introduce those toxins in the first place. The greatest detriment to your brains performance and the greatest impediment to its development is to smoke, drink alcohol or take drugs.

Despite some drugs such as marijuana being used by many artists as a crutch for boosting creativity, all other functions such as logic, reasoning, reaction speed and learning ability are greatly reduced.

The image says it all. In our comfort zone we keep repeating the same things over and over without progressing. Our brain is never faced with any challenges that would make it have to work harder. By putting ourselves out there and having to get used to a new environment, our brain is constantly forced to try and make sense of what is going on. It takes on this task by associating and relating the new things with things that it already knows.

There are a few things we can do to step out of our comfort zone. The biggest one is travel. However, you can also take smaller steps like learning a new sport, trying different foods, meeting new people or trying harder versions of things you already do.

If all you do at the gym is lift the small weights, you’re not going to get stronger. The same happens if we only use the first and easiest solution we come up with. If we keep training and digging a little bit deeper we build up that mental muscle by creating more neural connections as the brain attempts to find relations between things that seem unrelated at first.

They say innovation occurs on the line between the possible and the impossible. This line however will never be touched if all we do in our day to day is the same as always. Go out of your way (mentally) to find different ways of doing things or solving solutions. I am not saying make your life difficult for yourself. I mean that you should go beyond your first easy answer and find something that requires a bit more effort. Go to the brain gym and lift some heavier weights

We have two brain halves. The left one focuses on more creative tasks and activities and the right one is in charge of the more logical aspect of our day-to-day.

Left side

Recognizing faces

Expressing emotions

Music

Reading emotions

Color

Images

Intuition

Creativity

Right side

Language

Logic

Critical thinking

Numbers

Reasoning

Depending on what our stronger side is we have an easier time to learn certain tasks. A logical person will feel more comfortable with numbers, planning, organizing, problem solving, etc. Right-brain type people tend to get into jobs such as engineering, accounting, law, etc. Left-brain type people will usually find themselves comfortable doing art, socializing, and being creative in general so they end up in sales, dealing with customers, artists.

Knowing which type of person we are we are we can adapt our learning methods so that we use our strengths. This can save us a lot of time.

Aside from this however, what really ends up training our brains is to force ourselves to use our less used side. This will prepare our brain for future circumstances in which the less talented side is necessary or in which both sides must be applied. An engineer or a lawyer that needs to find a creative way to solve a design problem will be in a better position to do so if they have engaged in some form of art such as music, drawing, writing or something along those lines. On the other hand, an artist can greatly improve on the stereotype of “hungry artist” if he/she has trained in structured problem solving such as Sudoku puzzles or crosswords or math problems.

So, find out which type of brain bias you have to know how to learn better and to also find out which type of brain activity you need to improve on, creative or logical.

Building your vocabulary is a great way to improve your creativity and learning capacity.

Word of the Day

You can either open a dictionary or thesaurus on a random page and choose your word of the day. Then make it your objective to use that word in at least 3 different instances throughout your day. Try using it in an email, in conversations with other people, your blog or journal.

You will not remember every single word of every single day but over time you will re-use them in other occasions or read them. Over time your vocabulary will grow, and with it your brain’s capacity to retain information as well as creative ways to learn and use that information.

I recommend to head over to Dictionary.com and check out their word of the day. If you have trouble getting into that habit you can also sign up for their daily word newsletter for a random word per day.

As a child we all knew the phone number of our house, that of each of our friends and of our girlfriend/boyfriend off by heart. How many do you know now? How much have you relied on your phone’s memory?

Developing technology has made our lives much easier over the years. Online calendars, databases, apps and other endless tools have been created specifically to remind us, help us avoid mistakes and save time. Our brain memory has been replaced by our smartphones.

Dial the Number to Memorize it

A great way to start working on our brains performance is to avoid falling back on our phones contacts list. The best way to do this is by repetition. Sure, look at the number, but then, rather than hit the call button directly, type/push in the numbers separately and then hit dial.

Memorize your Calendar

Try to remember more things rather than refer to your calendar constantly. Every day, make a list of the things you have scheduled for that day or even the week and then compare that list to your calendar.